Incredible Journey...

On June 21, we received an email from our church that someone had contacted them with a matter that might interest us. This is that forwarded email:

NAME: Stephen Reilly
DATE/TIME SENT: 6/20/2010 3:18:41 PM
MESSAGE:
This is a long shot. I found some family photos that were discarded at a
local storage. It impressed me that the photos were a complete set of
school photos, perhaps lovingly assembled and labeled by a parent or
grandparent. Alas, there was little to identify the family other than the
marriage of one of the daughters, Jodi Lea Spies, at your church, July 30,
2005. Other children in the photo collection are Joshua Conner, Caleb
Conner, and Ira Spies. I believe the photos may have been collected by Mr.
and Mrs. Ira Conner, at 600 W. Roy, Waco, TX 76706 (apparently
grandparents) , but there is no working number for them. Perhaps the
photos were intentionally discarded, but I was concerned that they might
have sentimental value for family members. Thus, I "rescued" them was I
discarded by own trash at the storage facility. Sorry to bother you with
this. Stephen Reilly, email or 716-3057

I knew that this "trash" was generated as a result of our marathon clean-out spree last Thanksgiving week (4 1/2 train-car sized dumpsters were filled and numerous trailer loads were made to a storage unit awaiting a massive garage sale that a Waco church would be having in the Spring for its youth Summer activities)at my Mom and Dads house; but whether or not we had intended to discard these particular items, I did not know..But I did know that if these pictures and newspaper clippings had survived all this and were trying to find their way back home, they deserved another look.

So after contacting Mr. Reilly, he very kindly mailed the bundle to me.



Upon opening the package, there was no doubt that the pictures did indeed chronicle the lives of the grandchildren of Ira and Oleta Conner, the children of Donnie and Stephany Conner and Bob and Bonnie Spies.



My intent was to divide the items into stacks for each of the grandchildren and then disperse each stack accordingly. But a few days went by without me doing it. So, when Rachel and the boys came for "The Land of the Dinosaurs" (a musical held at the Texas Amphitheater here in Glen Rose) last weekend, Rachel and I went through the items and divided them appropriately.

As I supposed, the pictures consisted mainly of school pictures and newspaper clippings of which there were numerous copies. But there was one fantastic find that I felt made the whole venture worth it:



This was the card that Ira had made for his Peepaw when he had his first knee replacement surgery(out of 5!) back in the Spring of 1990. (I believe Ira was in the 4th grade.) This card was the topic of many conversations and the source of much laughter for my Mom and Dad up until the very end of their lives. Please notice the dog with Peepaw's knee bone in its mouth. It complete the picture of the sterile operating room quite nicely, doesn't it?

Thank you, Mr. Stephen Reilly, for taking the time and effort to return these to our family!